Session 1 readings (dube, 3/3 morning)

[Liliana Reyes-Contreras]

Geography feels like a hard science and then you notice things like labels and names and realize that with everything there is always human opinion and perspective coloring the way we perceive things and label things.  I think this is relevant in all studies of history and geography as we have learned almost all that we know from a primarily Western point of view. It make me wonder what the map would look like or what we could consider the Western world if we had history from an Asian perspective.  It is beyond facsinating that wars and battles have been waged over the names and identifications of geographic places and the cultural beliefs and identifications tha are often ignored by political quarrels. 

[Karimah Tennyson-Marsh]

I think starting the class with examining the current political, cultural, and environmental issues that East Asia, specifically China, Japan, and South Korea, are experiencing is a great way to engage us into to the topic. After all, to understand our future we need to look at the past, and by studying the past as we will in these coming weeks, we will be able to reflect on what we learned on that first day of class, including the readings, and see how East Asia found itself in the predicament of low birth rates and damaging pollution (China). We can also use what we learn of the region’s past to speculate on the region’s future. 

[Tanish Fortson]

I am slightly obsessed with knowing the population demographics of every place I travel and how they change over the years, which is why I love to take road trips and look for the little green signs that tell us how many people live in a particular city. When reading this article about the demographic crisis, I found myself wondering are these women similar to myself? As a woman I did not marry the 1^st man that made himself available to me. I wanted to go to college and was not ready for that type of responsibility. I just got married a year and a half ago and am expecting my 1^st child at the age of 36. Obviously at 36 I will not have a large family of 5 children. I’d love that but I am simply too old. In my opinion the question is, are these women choosing education and career over family? The answer is yes but I can completely understand why because I have internally had the same fight with myself. I am well aware of gender roles that are expected in Asia in because my husband comes from a traditional family (his dad worked and his mom stayed at home and raised 5 kids). His expectations for the order of our household are similar to that of how he was raised. Mind you that we both work full time but as the woman of the house I am expected to cook and clean and manage my career as well as baby when she gets here in a few months. I’m not going to touch on all of the disparities of marriage but as a woman, it’s easy to see why women are dissatisfied with the choices and want more supportive husbands. 

[Lin Kuang]

From Ma Jun to every single Chinese, they should be aware of the severe conceduences of pollution, climate changes, sea level rising, and our envrioment. As Mr.Ma indicated in his article ' One-fifth of farmland is too polluted to grow crops, nearly 60% of groundwater is unfit for human use and air pollution is 20 times the recommended safe levels." It warnsed us all Chinese to act immediately to stop pollution for our young generations.

The current smogs in Chinese major city causes inconvenience for local residence heavy pain for their daily routine. As Ma Jun indicated that the pollution created 450 cancer villages,  which is fatal. The fast development of Chinese econoly, the maufacqurers ignored the envrionmental issues or they just release wastes to rivers and oceans to destroy living things. If everyone is waiting for everyone else to protect  and balance the nature, whio is going to lead the role to stop polluting the air, water, and our places we live? It's everyone's responsibility. 

[Brandon Abraham]

Interestingly, Levitt's characterization of the Chinese leadership's "War on Pollution" sounds an awful lot like similar political rhetoric within the United States. If I were to present this to a class of students, I might have them compare/contrast some of the efforts within China to combat its environmental crisis with similar efforts within the United States.

However, Levitt makes clear how the need for increased and secure data is the beginning of the solution. Before I visited China, I worked under the assumption that China champions unlimited-and unregulated-economic growth above all else, so it is interesting to have a different perspective from an insider.

[Stella Castro]

In reading them,”BOK chief calls for increased birth rate amid population aging”, article, It was interesting to read about how the aging population in Asia is reaching the “Aged Society”, status a country gets when their population percentage of people reaches 14%, and now Asia is at 13.2, and this statistics was from the year 2016, so Asia must be very close to 14%, by now, given that we are in the year 2018.

However it is understandable that given the birth control policy, (where families are to have but two children, it is logical that this would eventually happen. If families nowadays are not allowed to bear more than two children, by the time those children grow up and are supposed to be and or join the work force, all of their relatives would be of age to retire or simply be regarded as old and unable to work or be much productive. So there will be a lot of elderly people and not enough young people to do all the work.

On the contrary I was astonished to read that Asia has a poor population, that it is second after Africa. Understandably it might be because Asia is so crowded, but this baffled me to read because many products we have here in the states come from Asia. Who has not seen the logo, “Made in China”, on many different types of merchandise. I just assumed that because of this, Asia would have more money and/or be more prosperous.

On reading the article about the mail order brides “Bride school: Where South Korea’s mail order wives learn their trade”, I already had heard about this practice. Actually I know of a person who did just this, he ordered himself a bride he said from a catalog and then hen he talked with her over the phone for several weeks/months, I forget and then he brought he over and married her, Without ever really meeting her, and in his case it worked out, they were still married the last time I spoke with him. Unlike in the article, it states that these types’ of marriages are falling apart. I could see reason into this concept, because for a marriage to work it has to involve both parties and there has to be love, not fake or pretend love. In this article where the woman files her husband’s number under “Beloved” a man she hardly knew and after 18 hours of meeting they married.  Although the relationship in this article seemed like it was working, when the woman texted her husband a picture of her pregnancy test, the article stated that,”There were two red lines”. I did not understand what this meant but I assumed that the husband texted the picture back with the two red lines, like an,”X”, meaning, In other words,”no way shall we have a child”. I could be wrong with my interpretation of the story; however it made sense to me.

I can use this article and of course with their parent’s permission, to teach my students about not having sex with strangers. Be intimate with someone you love or care about and always wear protection, unless you are ready to be a parent.

[Jonathan Tam]

I will always find the idea of perspectives in history to be one of the most engaging and eloquent reasons for taking this course. History is just the story we tell it and it is reflected very much in the way things exist economically, politically, socially, and even in the names of things on the map. The first seminar does such a great job of presenting the known information about economics and demographics and this serves as a great platform for moving backwards in time and learning about pre-1800. I really appreciate how much thought Clay places on things like China’s single time zone or its peoples’ economic interests. This information really helps shape a better understanding of where China has come from.

[Jonathan Tam]

Contextualizing Asia’s reproduction rates to a cultural lag certainly provides a pretty steady explanation to how things are politically, economically, and socially. The article describes the cultural lag as a wave of empowerment that women took as they began to access the workforce. And it seems as though Asia is only at the surface of of this cultural lag. Asian women in the field of politics is still something rare and held in high regard, and business leaders throughout the course have typically been male. I believe it to be the duty of men to give up footholds in power so that women can feel better inclined to rise to power.

 

As I finished this article, something that also came to mine was how big of an emphasis American culture places on marriage and family culture. There are constantly tv shows and news of families and babies throughout American media. And it makes me wonder if the same is reflected in asian culture. I have always gotten the sense that (having grown up as an Asian male), there is an incessant focus on youth and beauty rather than age and family - but I will definitely need to take a deeper look into analyzing media as a platform for change in demographics.

[Jonathan Tam]

When I volunteered in San Francisco, I learned about a policy that volunteers took up and that policy was that it’s better as a volunteer to give people new and unused needles from our office in the city than risk the fact that they might get needles from somewhere else. It was a policy that fully embraces that addiction has run rampant in the city and that the only reality is to accommodate for it. I was very much reminded of this when I read this article. It seems very much understood that there are familial pressures to continue the family line or to seek a better life in another country, but rather than addressing those larger systemic issues - it’s instituted to create adjustments that allow the system to proliferate. Embedded in korean dramas and jokes and even memes is this ongoing desire to break down traditional ideologies that have come at the detriment of our people. And it will be interesting to see how this unfolds in future generations.

[Jonathan Tam]

When I studied the environmental problem in China during my undergrad, I remember reading the proposal that a chinese professor proposed to launch cannonballs into the sky that would create particular matter for clouds to form around them. The solution resulted in the balls falling from the sky and landing on people's’ houses. From reading this article, it makes a lot more sense as to why China would pursue such crazy solutions in order to create radical changes in their environment. With groundwater becoming increasingly dangerous to use as well as air pollution above its safe levels, solutions will need to be creative with China. Many current environmental solutions allow for carbon and damage to be mitigated, but not reversed.

[Jonathan Tam]

It was interesting to read about how the end of Japan’s rice age is not a result of the crop being less farmed but rather less consumed. With sushi being less desirable among the older generation as well as sake, it makes a lot of sense as to why Japan’s rice age has fallen. Some of the proposed solutions, including feeding the rice to animals, sound pretty interesting; but, I’m certainly curious to see if this will impact the international market.

[Stella Castro]

Juan I always find that using maps help my students to see and better understand the lesson/s, or just the pain use of a map they find interesting and alluring. I teach special education, and my students have severe disabilities. Therefore they require many visuals to better understand anything we talk, about, or what I try to teach them. Maps are useful for my students as maps are colorful. Of course I have to explain to them how the, “Key”of the map works many times. But I do not mind doing this, as I want them to understand the lesson/s as much as possible. Being special education students, still require the exposure to many and all subjects and topics, even if they don’t understand. I imagine Mr. Dube did a great job in the usage of maps for the lecture part of the session,( as I was not present), but knowing how well Mr. Dube presents  I am sure he did a great job.

You are right that using a map triggers student’s curiosities, as they want to learn more and this is when they ask more questions. Once they start asking the questions, I feel as if I have caught them, that I have their full and undivided  attention and that is when the learning process begins, ( at least in my mentality of my students). 

Since I wasn’t present at the lecture, I assume from your posting that Mr. Dube presented more than one map, as you speak of” sets of maps”, and like you I also think it would be a great idea to have several maps that pertain to the different terrains, localities, and agriculture influences to better help the students to understand the lesson/s and expand their knowledge.  Thanks for bringing up the topic of Maps.

[Percy Ortiz]

After having sat through two lectures on Japan from Prof. Yamashita I began to wonder what the significance of rice in Japan actually was. Although the article mentioned the gradual decrease of rice consumption and rice based products being made in Japan a fact or point that the article did not mention, but the professor highlighted, was the fact that only after World War Two did everyone in Japan eat rice. So, with that in mind, could it have been that although rice has been a part of the culture in Japan for many years and possibly centuries, has the aura of rice and the way the article perceives Japanese culture and consumption a bit flawed? Could it be that the concerns that the article was highlighting is in reality a return to a more diverse diet in Japan? After Dr. Yamashita's seminar I wondered how and why were all Japanese eating rice? Was it a product that was being grown and imported into Japan or was it being produced in Japan? What were the reasons for Japan's high consumption of rice during that time? Could it be that today's trend of having diverse grains is like a return to the old ways? 

[Sandra Soltero-Torres]

Jacqueline, I agree with you that women in East Asian countries are still viewed within the lense of tradition.  They contribute to the economy by joining the work force, yet they are still expected to maintain traditional gender roles.  This reminds me of how cultural traditions and gender roles still play such an important role in society.  It is interesting to me how East Asian countries are innovative in many areas, yet they remain ingrained in traditions that in a sense hold them back.  The dynamics are somewhat contradicting, but I also agree with you that a change in attitude regarding a woman's role needs to happen in order for birth rates to begin increasing again.

[Jacqueline Mercado]

It is interesting to note that East Asian countries are innovative with technology and with other advances that have contributed to a growing economy. China for example, has become the second largest economy in the world due to its industrial development and yet we see how tradition is so deeply ingrained in these East Asian countries in regards to this issue which is resulting in an increasing decreasing birth rate.  This problem is mainly due to the fact that in a sense the material conditions of life can and have changed quickly but attitudes and traditions are not so readily changed.  These cultural values which are harder to change have real economic implications.  It is interesting to note how tradition can be a hinderance to the health of a country's economy.  This is much deeper than encouraging people in East Asian countries to view women differently simply because times have changed, but because if cultural values do not change, this is a viable threat to the future of that economy.  What is uncertain and worrisome is that we do not know if the needed cultural shifts will take place in time to avoid a future crisis.  The hope is that these East Asian countries with a decreasing birth rate will adapt to their new reality as they have in other areas of development.

[Author]

Posts